There are times when you’re in need of searching your DEVONthink databases but don’t want to switch out of your current application or space. In System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Services > Text, there is a service named DEVONthink Pro: Lookup… This will be active when you have some recognized text selected in a document. Selecting the service from the current application’s menu > Services will open a full search window with the search already completed. (more)

Support tickets sometimes present new ideas. And sometimes they rekindle old ones from the back burner. I recently had a ticket from someone who wanted to open a document in two windows at once. So, about half an hour later, another custom AppleScript script was finished — one that would open the same document in two windows, placed side by side on the screen. (more)

DEVONthink does not have a system for automatically backing up everything. DEVONthink has a setting in its Preferences > Backup that controls how many internal metadata backups are done. These backups can be used in a troubleshooting situation by selecting Tools > Restore Backup. (more)

A recent Twitter post asked a question about turning on and off the WebSharing server in DEVONthink Pro Office. It was assuming a need for an AppleScript or Keyboard Maestro routine. Well, it’s not AppleScriptable (outside of UI scripting, which I don’t advocate) and Keyboard Maestro is more than is needed for this task. (more)

The Global Inbox is ideally used as a place to store quickly captured data that will be filed later. Many times we’re quickly grabbing things of interest to us, but not related to any project. We make a vague mental note about filing this information later, but then forget about it as we find ourselves following other interesting ideas. Some time later we slow down and realize our global inbox has gotten out of hand. (more)

When using DEVONthink’s search features, the results are handled a bit differently than browsing the database. The results are insulated from accidental deletion by default. So what if you want to delete something from the search results? Here are three options: … (more)

When it comes to synchronizing on any network connection, the quality and strength of your network matters — and is often not as good as you imagine. Can you hit the maximum advertised speed? Yes, but probably not sustained over the hours and hours you use it. Wireless networks are convenient, but they’re also subject to poor signal strength, noise, and other factors that can limit your sync reliablility. (more)

Last week, we talked about editing options in DEVONthink: What happens when you double-click a file (and why) as well as the hotkey to open a file in the system default application. But there are also times when you want to open a document in an application other than the system default. (more)

In DEVONthink, if a type of file can be edited in DEVONthink, it will open in a DEVONthink document window when the file is double-clicked. This makes it easy to isolate a document for editing while allowing you to keep your place in the other window. It also allows you to keep working directly in DEVONthink without having to jump back and forth between applications. (more)

Recently, we had a customer expressing a desire to have black-and-white PDFs. Our head developer, Christian, suggested running a Quartz filter on them. When you export out of Apple’s Preview, you have the option of applying a Quartz filter to adjust the output. (more)